Miner hacked to death over tea preparation

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:01 by GxMedia

One miner hacked to death one of his colleagues during a quarrel over the preparation of tea last month that resulted in the assailant falling ill, police said.

The dead man has been identified as 22-year old Oral Norton of Moruca, North West District.

Norton was chopped to death in a mining pit at Big Creek, North West District. Police said the suspect has been arrested and was assisting with the probe into the homicide.

“It is suspected that the incident stemmed from the preparation of tea using a bark by the deceased during May this year, which resulted in the suspect taking ill after consumption,” Guyana Police Force spokesman, Ivelaw Whittaker said in a statement.

The two men were working in a mining pit when Norton was “attacked by the suspect and chopped about the body.”

There has been a high incidence of homicides in Guyana’s interior where thousands of people are being lured by the lucrative gold price that closed at US$1,391.25 on the London Gold Fix.